I was working hard on a future for Amelia and me that might never materialize.
And if Amelia wasn’t by my side, then what kind of future would that even be?
22
Amelia
The next week dragged on like Lucy’s search for Bain’s sperm thieves. There was only irritation and no end in sight. Titus had come over several times, but he’d been distant. He wouldn’t talk about his current job, and I wouldn’t talk about Daire or the proposal I supposedly had for the mayor, so there wasn’t a lot we could talk about. We ended up dancing around the two giant elephants in the room and then had sex because Lord knew, nothing was wrong in our relationship in that department. The man’s penis was built for me, I was certain. It came near me and I already quivered in delight.
Now if we could only get the rest of our relationship on track.
Maybe if I hadn’t flat-out lied about the mayor, I wouldn’t feel so bad.
Maybe if Titus would come clean with me about his project, we could actually talk.
For all I knew, Titus was in cahoots with Daire, building that hotel he said he’d come to town for! I mean, I doubted it, given that the bruise had just now vanished from Titus’s jawline, but stranger things had happened when men and money were involved. The fact that he wouldn’t talk to me about it was driving me crazy.
I didn’t do well with secrets being kept from me. They pestered and festered, leading me to creep out in the middle of the night and vandalize things. I’d given up tagging the Welcome to Auburn Hill sign for Titus, and now I was itching for a new outlet.
By Friday afternoon I was in such a tizzy, Crystal asked me to take the night off just to get rid of me. I conceded the wisdom in her suggestion and went to my room to change clothes. I had a plan to approach Titus and get the information out of him by way of lingerie. Yeah, yeah. Women shouldn’t use their bodies as blackmail, but I think I’d proven already I didn’t have too many hang-ups when it came to breaking out whatever was necessary for a good blackmail scheme. I had a picture of a used condom to prove it.
Just as I wrangled the new teeny tiny black thong onto my body without strangling myself, my phone dinged.
When I saw who texted me, I groaned. I contemplated not even looking, but let me remind you of my inability to have secrets around me and not do whatever it took to learn all the sordid details.
Daire: Too bad you’re just another small-town woman without vision. Could have been you…
Attached was a picture of him with his sleazy arm around a woman, about to step onto a private jet like some sort of rich celebrity. I wasn’t proud of it, but I zoomed in on the picture to see who the woman was. And I nearly dropped my phone in shock.
“Cow girl?” I shouted to my empty room.
The woman in the picture looked a hell of a lot like M. Smith. The woman who I suspected was in cahoots with Mayor Bennett. Also, a woman who liked to play farm animal sex with cowbells and questionable noises. That M. Smith.
“Eww,” I said, disgusted.
Daire was also sleeping with her? What the fuck was going on? I felt like I’d stumbled into a full-color version of The Twilight Zone.
Amelia: Have fun with that. Hope you’re not allergic to hay.
I tossed my phone on the bed and continued getting ready. I wanted to ignore the heavy feeling in my gut, but by the time I was ready to head out the door, I almost felt nauseous from it. Sitting down on the bed, I moved the phone back and forth on the bedspread, trying to figure out why Daire’s text irritated me so much. The obvious reason was because he was poking me in the eye on purpose, but there was more to it. I hated this feeling of not being enough. I secretly wondered if I wasn’t enough for anyone. Or maybe I was too much.
Titus was a nice guy. He’d help a friend or simple acquaintance without question. He bent over backward for his brother who was a deadbeat. Hell, he’d put up with me as his best friend all these years. Clearly, he was a saint.
What if I wasn’t enough for him? Or too much of a pain in the ass for a nice guy?
“Fuck!” I said, exasperated.
Daire was messing with my head. I should just go find Titus and talk to him. Tell him the truth about how I blackmailed the mayor and weather his anger. He’d forgive me in time. He had to. He always did in the past. Maybe then he could tell me about his project, which I’m sure had nothing to do with Daire. And then we could live happily ever after.
Simple as that.
I flew through the hotel and into my car, heading directly to his jobsite, knowing he wouldn’t be done until the sun went down and we had another hour before sunset. I didn’t have far to go and thankfully parking was easy down at this end of Main Street. I pulled right behind a cute little smart car and cut the engine.
I glanced out the window and saw Titus standing with his foot up on the slab of concrete that would make up his foundation. His jeans stretched across his fine ass, and his T-shirt seemed to have the same problem. His muscles were popping everywhere, straining the confines of cotton and thread. He threw back his head and laughed, that stupid mullet of his doing crazy things to the pool of desire that formed every time I caught sight of him.
Then I frowned. Who was that he was talking to?
I leaned
